It’s time to look through Previews again, and see what the future holds for comics.

Dark Horse

I think I bought all of Dark Horse’s ‘Comics’ Greatest World’ line, at least the first issues, back in the 90s, but I barely remember any of them, because they weren’t all that impressive. They’ve been dipping back into that well recently, but I have had no interest in titles like X or Ghost, and have ignored them. Now, though, with Catalyst Comix, a nine-part mini-series, they are bringing in talent like Dan McDaid, Ulises Farinas, and Paul Maybury to draw stories written by Joe Casey. Sold.

Ryan Kelly is going to draw Star Wars, the Brian Wood-written series set just after the first movie. This is exciting news – he’s such a good figure artist, and I can’t wait to see what he does with these characters. If only this would be as good as Local…

DC

It looks like DC has finally gotten around to telling the Trinity War story that they’ve been building up to for a couple of years now. The thing is, I couldn’t care less, as I don’t buy any of the titles that are involved in it, and with the exception of Jeff Lemire, no longer trust most of the creators writing and drawing it all. Were Lemire drawing it, that would be a different matter entirely…

I’m pleased to see that DC is cancelling Batman Incorporated at the end of Grant Morrison’s run, instead of trying to spin it out indefinitely. How long until another Bat-book is announced though?

Is Batman: The Dark Knightany good? It says in Previews that Alex Maleev is drawing #22, but I don’t know anything about Gregg Hurwitz’s writing, and so am reluctant to pre-order this. Especially since we are just as likely to discover, when it comes out, that it’s drawn by Scott Kolins. You just can’t trust what DC publishes in Previews…

Batman ‘66, a digital-first book set in the continuity of the old TV show, is either going to be wonderful or horrendous. With names like Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case involved, I suspect it may in fact be very very good.

We all know that Vertigo has been in trouble of late, so I’m a little surprised to see that they are launching Collider, a new physics-based series by Simon Oliver and Robbi Rodriguez. The thing is, I loved Oliver’s Exterminators, and have liked everything I’ve seen Rodriguez do, so I’m going to be on-board for this. My fear is that it won’t last any longer than Saucer Country did, but I intend to enjoy it while I can.

I see that Mike Carey is putting out a The Unwritten graphic novel. Personally, I hate these kinds of side projects of on-going series, as it’s never clear if this is an essential part of the story or a cash grab.

Image

Usually I check out any new high-profile series starting at Image, but I’m of two minds about Satellite Sam. Matt Fraction, when working on creator-owned books, is usually excellent, but I have a strong dislike of artist Howard Chaykin’s artwork. I’ll give it a shot, but I’m less excited about this than I probably should be. If I knew how long this was supposed to run, I’d be able to make a better decision – I really wish Image would include information like that in their solicitations.

Ghosted, by Joshua Williamson and Goran Parlov is another book I’m on the fence for, but Sheltered, by Ed Brisson and Johnnie Christmas is a must-buy. I’ll probably get the first issue of the former, but the preview pages don’t do much for me. Brisson, of the brilliant Murder Book, and the very good Comeback, is a writer to keep an eye on.

Marvel

One effect of not bothering with Age of Ultron is that I’m also not all that interested in reading it’s new follow-up series, Avengers AI. I like Sam Humphries’s independent writing though, and have always been a big fan of The Vision (however, I hate his new look), so I’ll probably end up picking this book up when it comes out, seeing as it’s a $3 title.

I also find it impossible to care about the fact that Neil Gaiman is co-writing Guardians of the Galaxy with Brian Michael Bendis. These are two writers who really shouldn’t be writing together; their styles are not very complementary. It would be like having Damon Runyon collaborating with JRR Tolkien…

Zeb Wells is taking over the writing for Nova? That makes me maybe want to read the book, as I’ve always liked Richard Rider, and am a little curious about the new kid in the suit. I have a standing rule about books written by Jeph Loeb though, so I’d want assurances that he’s not coming back to the title.

The Superior Foes of Spider-Mansounds like a tempting new series, seeing as it’s written by Nick Spencer and drawn by Steve Lieber. I’m a little surprised to see that it’s an on-going title though, and am not sure I want to commit to something like that. I probably need to buy that first issue just because of the Marcos Martin cover though…

I see that Greg Land is returning to Iron Man with issue 13. This makes me glad that I didn’t start buying the book again, as that would have been a disappointment.

I usually am not happy to see that Annuals are being published – they’re usually over-priced and less than impressive, but Hawkeye is getting an Annual drawn by Javier Pulido in the same month that his regular series has art by David Aja. This is a lot of good stuff happening at the same time.

For July, I am pre-ordering twenty-four Marvel comics, but those represent only sixteen different titles. Enough with the double-shipping. This is why I probably won’t buy Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Nova, Avengers AI, or anything else that looks interesting that month. I wish Marvel understood that.

Valiant

I know that there was a lot of excitement on this site around the relaunching of Quantum and Woody at Valiant, but I’ve never actually read Christopher Priest’s cult series, and have not seen any reason to start. If Priest were writing it, I’d be definitely checking it out, because I really miss his voice in comics, but as it stands, I’m probably going to skip it. Does that make me a bad person?

Well, that’s everything that caught my eye. What would you be buying, Were Money No Object?